A deep dive down the rabbit hole of our astonishing, non-conceptual experience of what IS.
John Astin is back! He is a health psychologist, meditation teacher, musician, and the author of four books on spiritual practice, including This Extraordinary Moment. His guided meditations can be found on Sam Harris's Waking Up app. He has a Ph.D. in health psychology and is an adjunct professor of clinical and counseling psychology at Santa Clara and Notre Dame de Namur Universities.
Find his books, teachings, and more on his website: https://johnastin.com
Here are all our videos on consciousness, meditation, and awakening: https://bit.ly/3NYbBvx
Timecodes:
0:00 Intro
1:52 What are we? How consciousness identifies with its contents
6:33 The thought/conceptual world vs. the experiential world
11:25 Concepts can’t capture raw experience, quantum physics vs gross reality
16:24 The conceptual world and the spiritual “journey”, the nature of impermanence
23:37 How “long” is NOW?
28:06 What is living truth relative to the thought world, the pragmatic benefit of realization
34:43 Integrating absolute realization into daily life
41:09 Mind reduces infinity to finite and a sense of lack, non-duality
44:47 Coming off retreat and “reintegrating”, the “commentary” of thought consciousness
52:31 What IS anxiety experientially?
57:04 Conceptual thought world removes “magic” from experience
59:30 The power of attention and discernment in inquiring into experience
1:06:20 The apparent spiritual “journey”
1:10:38 Awakening and realization over time
1:12:52 We are wired to seek enjoyment
1:19:48 The radiant beauty of everything regardless of mental labels, what is art?
1:29:37 The miracle of what IS
1:40:17 A guided meditation/inquiry on presence: intro
1:42:19 Guided meditation on presence
Another live episode here without ads for Locals! We touch on a BUNCH of stuff, including Trump's transition, possible FDA appointments, RFK Jr., letters we've gotten about reproductive rights, was Harris or her team afraid to have her go on Rogan, a deep dive into COVID infection fatality rate and what to do about vaccines, and MUCH more. As always, audio version can be found wherever you get your podcasts!
Yesterday's Sunday Zen! PS here it is ad-free for the Locals fam, or if you prefer, here's the YouTube link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6uWkRgIiIc?feature=share
Today's interview with legendary vaccine researcher Paul Offit. Video version coming shortly!
An Irish Times article today raising the alarm for whooping cough and measles infections increasing. Childhood vaccinations down. The article is shared on Facebook and the comments section harps straight back to Covid vaccines. Makes me sad and also makes me think of that old saying - 'You can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink' - I see another message on that old saying now - 'you shouldn't make it drink' just be patient. Feels like that old Covid Horse got dragged to the water, had her head plunged into it and nearly drowned so now she's scared of the water. I hope one day we can get past this. Be patient, I guess.
I had the privilege of listening to a man’s final breaths and heartbeats yesterday. It was my first time being there as someone died. He was going to go home on hospice services and I was there for that. My soul knew he was going. His granddaughter was also there, having just flown in from the mainland. I think he was waiting for her. He went quietly and gently. I was meant to be there, for both of them. Profound.
